Top tennis stars will have no time to prepare for Olympics after Wimbledon

By SABC Sport
24th July 2026

Due to a really tight schedule, the world's best tennis players will get no break between Wimbledon and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

The next Olympics will be staged from 14-30 July in Los Angeles and organisers have now confirmed that the tennis event will be a 10-day affair that starts on Wednesday, 19 July and finishes on Friday, 28 July at Carson Courts.

The tournament will start with the mixed doubles competition taking place on 19 and 20 July while the singles action will get underway on 20 July, but there is the small matter of switching from grass to hard courts in the space of a few days.

Wimbledon 2028 is set to start on Monday, 4 July with the finals being staged on the weekend of 15-16 July, which leaves those who reach the latter stages of the grass-court Grand Slam virtually no time to prepare for the Olympics.

Two years ago at the Paris Games, there was a two-week break between Wimbledon and the Olympics as the finals at the All England Club took place on 13-14 July while the tennis tournament at Roland Garros started on 27 July.

It meant players had time to play warm-up events on clay before heading to Paris, but they won't have that luxury in 2028.

Defending Olympic champion Novak Djokovic has made no secret of the fact that he wants to compete at the LA Games, but those who compete in the Wimbledon finals in two years' time will have to dash off to the United States and start their singles campaign with hardly any break.

Djokovic beat Carlos Alcaraz in the gold medal match in Paris with Lorenzo Musetti claiming the bronze medal while Zheng Qinwen won gold in the women's singles with Donna Vekic taking silver and Iga Swiatek bronze.

Winning a medal for your country at the Olympics is one of the biggest achievements for most tennis players, but some of them might be forced to make a difficult decision to skip the tournament in Los Angeles.

World No 1 Jannik Sinner missed the 2024 Paris Games due to illness while women's world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka didn't compete as Belarus was banned from the Games, although players could compete as individuals.

The 2028 LA Games will be a 64-player singles draw event (men and women), 32 teams will be allowed to enter the doubles tournaments and 16 teams will play in the mixed doubles competition.

Each nation can have up to four singles players, two doubles teams and one mixed doubles team.

A lot of the top players compete in all three events - mixed doubles, doubles and singles - so they could be set for a busy fortnight in Los Angeles, having had no rest after Wimbledon.

In terms of eligibility, players can only compete if they have fulfilled the minimum participation requirement in Davis Cup or Billie Jean King Cup competitions during the Olympic Cycle.